actionjackson posted:

To be honest, I've never played a game of this genre before. Should I not even bother with this or the prequel?

Like Smelly said, you might want to check out Demon's Souls first due to it only costing $20 and helps you get a feel for what Dark Souls will be like. Both games will play similarly, but with Dark Souls being more open-ended.

The gameplay is a mix between Zelda, Monster Hunter and Oblivion with a lot of challenge and a good deal of punishment for failure (but failing is not as bad as it first looks). If any of that sounds appealing, give the games a shot.

Popcorn posted:

Is it just a really slow burner, or is this game not for me?

The game is a bit of a slow burner; I'd say try downing another boss before making your decision. Then again, the Souls series brings out different reactions depending on how you enjoy your games. I enjoyed the game practically from the get-go, but it got even better once everything clicked. It could easily be you'll love this game once you get in a zone, but it could go the other way.

DotyManX posted:

It's appropriately Dark Souls, not only in name, but because if you are able to endure the sensation of being orally raped by a bottle of liquid smoke than you can enjoy the experience of having drank a beer.

Not to crap the thread with beer talk, but if I were to drink on this game (either a terrible idea or a brilliant idea), I would go for Stone's Double Bastard Ale. Touted by the brewers themselves as a masochist's drink; this beer is immediate-headache inducing and ultimately
wonderful. Sound familiar?

Anyways, I skipped the midnight release after agreeing to go to Gamestop today with a friend to pick it up. Last night was a very long, sleepless night with "Bartholemew" and "All Saints Day" playing non-stop in my head. With any luck I'll be playing Dark Souls in the next few hours, however.

I seriously spoiled the game for myself. I watched a ton of streams, have seen huge amounts of the game from the tutorial to the ending. I don't regret this (yet). Being surprised was not what made Demon's Souls my favorite game of this generation; and it's not what's going to make Dark Souls even better (hopefully). I know for a lot of you this isn't the case--spoiling the game would ruin a lot of the joy, but I feel like seeing this content and actually playing it are going to be two very different experiences. The only downside was every bit of Dark Souls footage I've watched has made me want the game more, for every bit of footage assured me that this game will be awesome and I will love every minute of it. Ugh.

Cuchulain posted:

So I got to play this for the first time at a friend's place yesterday. It's like Godhand and Legend of Zelda had a really hardcore kid. It's so amazing.

I suddenly want God Hand's soundtrack in Dark Souls. "Gene's Rock-A-Bye" every time all the time.

Also, Dark Souls really does a good job of making me afraid to play. I'm finding it easier to obsess over the game online rather than actually play the drat thing; despite having a blast when I do pick up the controller. I got the game on the 4th and have only played 18 hours, and in that time I haven't even rung the second bell. Man, this will be a slow burner.

Male of the Century posted:

I actually really liked the place and loved that they put such a well made, essentially completely optional, area into the game that had a level of detail that was on par with everywhere else. I just wish there was some reason for it being there, some sort of small plot hole that was never explained in the main story and the answer was found there but you could miss it entirely if you didn't know that the place existed and still get a complete story out of the game.

It's like you're playing Dark Souls, and all of a sudden you go on this weird little acid trip where nothing really makes sense or has a rhyme or reason, but at the end of the trip the nice lady says you really shouldn't be here and that you have to go home now, and you wake up in the church in Anor Londo with a pounding headache surrounded by a bunch of men in dresses who want to stick their knives in you.

Supposedly, and this is hearsay at best, that location is for some story element related to (and this is a serious loving spoiler)You being the Furtive Pygmy or a descendant or something. At least supposedly, again this is hearsay. Rumor is having the right items and not joining a covenant and enough humanity changes dialogue options with Priscilla.

So, I'm in Tomb of Giants for the first time (I really need to hunker down and just beat this game), and frankly I really like the area. As much as people might hate it, I think the total darkness adds a tremendous amount of appeal. Sure it may be somewhat gimmicky, but it turns the Tomb into just a kind of bland cave with somewhat farmable monsters into a truly terrifying experience. It feels as brilliantly malevolent as 5-2 in Demon's Souls, and possibly more memorable.

Still, it's drat hard. I think this area has given me more trouble than any other place in the Souls games (with exception of Maneater fight in DeSo, and I haven't messed with the other three Lord Soul areas yet).

Is it normal to have invaders that are outrageously stronger than you? I've gotten one shot a couple of times now and had almost no ability to do anything there other than sit there and take it.

At the same time, it's nice being able to summon those outrageously strong people. Someone just helped me mow through The Depths in like 5 minutes, even helped me get the Greataxe off the dragon at the end. Pretty awesome.

There's miles of difference between someone at level 15 who has never played before versus someone who is level 15 who is going on even only his second playthrough. Orders of magnitude of difference even, because a skilled player can not only fight the in-sequence stuff faster, but can break sequence to kill stuff that only a skilled player can kill. What I mean is that it is entirely possible to beat Dark Souls at level 1 and you bet your rear end that there are level 1 characters that are trolling like hell on you.